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Progressive Full Backups - how to configure

Progressive Full Backups represent a significant evolution in our backup/retention policies and procedures

available for both Hosted and Self Hosted customers

The way this works is as follows

- original full backup taken over the network
- incremental backups are then taken forever over the network
- when retention is reached, our system will take a new Virtual Full (performed directly on the storage device), by combining the original full, with the next incremental, to create a new full
- each day afterwards, the full from the beginning of the retention will be combined with the next incremental to create a new Full, and the original Full will be dropped

Since we have 1 full per retention period, we do not require fulls at the middle and end of the retention period. Total disk space savings on storage is approx 60%, and can be even more in various scenarios

Additionally, since we compile a new full + incremental each time to generate a new full, the full never ages to a point where recompiling for restores because extensively prolonged because of software overhead associated with recompiling all that data.

The ONLY exception to such a setup is scenarios with very long retention periods. In such cases, the "Virtual Full" option should be selected, which will create regular full (virtual) backups throughout the retention period

To activate Progressive Fulls - enter the wizard for a server and navigate to the "pool" section and simply select "Progressive" (currently flagged as "expiremental"). This is safe to use now and in the very near future will be the default option set under this section

Once configured and set (and/or cycled through if you switch an existing server with "Virtual" or "Classic" Full over to new Progressive Full), your restore points will look similar to the below. Notice the single Full at the oldest retention point, with all other restore points being Incremental

PLEASE NOTE - You can switch any server/vm from Classic Full or Virtual Full to Progressive at anytime. However, when switching existing servers, it will take a full retention period to cycle out the previous Full mechanism with the new Progressive Full method